diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/autoscaling/AutoScalingHandlerTest.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/autoscaling/AutoScalingHandlerTest.java
index 830bef2248f..d9f0388ab36 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/autoscaling/AutoScalingHandlerTest.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/autoscaling/AutoScalingHandlerTest.java
@@ -80,7 +80,8 @@ public class AutoScalingHandlerTest extends SolrCloudTestCase {
     NamedList<Object> response = null;
     try {
       response = solrClient.request(req);
-      fail("Adding a policy with 'cores' attribute should not have succeeded.");
+      String errorMsg = (String) ((NamedList)response.get("error")).get("msg");
+      assertTrue(errorMsg.contains("cores is only allowed in 'cluster-policy'"));
     } catch (SolrServerException e) {
       // todo one of these catch blocks should not be needed after SOLR-10768
       if (e.getRootCause() instanceof HttpSolrClient.RemoteSolrException) {